News – Page 101 – The Diamond Certification Laboratory of Australia (DCLA)

Strange New Mineral Discovered Trapped Inside A Diamond

You’ve heard the slogan, “Diamonds are forever” and while that’s meant to be marketed toward the jewelry customers, it also excites scientists studying diamonds.

This is because unlike when you’re shopping for an engagement ring, imperfections in the diamond are of great interest to scientists.

Through analysis of a single tiny grain imperfection within a diamond, researchers discovered a brand new mineral never before seen. The findings, published in American Mineralogist, officially introduced the new mineral goldschmidtite ((K,REE,Sr)(Nb,Cr)O3).

The diamond is from South Africa, more specifically the Koffiefontein pipe that is known for producing world-class diamonds and operated by the international diamond behemoth De Beers.

Trapped within the diamond itself is a tiny spec, an inclusion that the diamond grew over and around, trapping it within the diamond’s strong crystal lattice about 105 miles below the surface of the Earth. Inclusions in diamonds are not entirely unusual but they are exciting because it gives a glimpse into the geochemistry of the surrounding molten rock as the diamond formed.

The new mineral goldschmidtite, a dark green spec the width of a human hair, has unusual chemical properties. Thankfully, it was trapped within the diamond itself which is strong and stable enough to last millions to billions of years. Hence, it is a perfect “vessel” for preserving rare and unique minerals.

The dominant elements that make up the mantle where this diamond formed are magnesium, iron, etc. However, this spec contains niobium, potassium and the very rare elements lanthanum and cerium. The fact that this mineral contains such a unique concoction of rare elements is intriguing. How was there enough concentration of these rare elements to form this unusual mineral?

The processes by which this mineral formed must have been unique and the available elements must have been unique.

The new mineral is named after Victor Moritz Goldschmidt, who lived in the late 19th century and early 20th century and was an early and famous mineralogist. He was a pioneer in researching the perovskite crystal chemistry, a similar crystal chemistry as found in this newly discovered mineral.

The first step of identification of the mineral is now complete and the next step will be to develop a model for how this unusual mineral formed in the depths below South Africa. Certainly, the team will be looking for more examples of goldschmidtite in the Koffiefontein pipe to see if there are chemical variations and more clues as to how this unique mineral formed.

This isn’t the first time researchers have found precious information locked in diamonds. Back in 2014, a research team published a Nature paper on their discovery of hydrous minerals locked within a diamond. This provided direct evidence that water is locked away in the deep mantle.

Source: forbes

Hong Kong Show Reflects Slow Chinese Demand

The timing of the September Hong Kong Jewellery & Gem Fair was unfortunate, coming amid a wave of anti-government demonstrations in the city. But for many participants, the political tensions were masking the bigger issue: Chinese demand has slowed, compounding the wider problems in the diamond industry.

“The protests are an excuse [for not attending], but really the market is not good,” said the director of a large Indian diamond manufacturer on condition of anonymity.

The trade war, the depreciation of the Chinese yuan currency, and high gold prices have reduced the buying power of companies and consumers in the country, exhibitors noted at the fair, which ended Sunday. Trade customers are mostly unwilling to buy for stock or make advance bulk orders, as they want to keep their inventory down. Some Chinese jewelers believe they can get better deals if they wait for polished prices to fall further.

“Retailers have a lot of polished goods that haven’t been sold,” a Hong Kong-based supplier noted at the show last week. “They were buying at a consistent pace, but the consumption level has gone down. They used to buy bigger parcels for the long term, but now they’re working three months at a time.” That change has occurred since May, he added.

Shift to lower qualities

Consumers are seeking cheaper jewelry items, observed Lawrence Ma, president of the Diamond Federation of Hong Kong, China. “The market has adjusted to a level that represents the [current] supply and demand,” he explained.

On a positive note, growing interest in those lower-priced items — such as 0.30- to 0.50-carat diamonds with SI clarity — could boost the trade as shortages start appearing, he added.

“Commercial goods have become very popular in China,” Ma said. “In the last two to three months, the supply of rough has decreased, which is a healthy sign. We’re already seeing certain sizes and qualities of goods might be in demand. We might find we do not have enough of these goods.”

Lower footfall, slower sales

Sales at the show were focused on commercial goods, with stable demand for 1- to 1.50-carat, G to I, VS2 to SI2 diamonds. The market for 0.30- and 0.40-carat stones was weak, but showed signs of stabilizing. Demand for diamonds weighing 3 carats and higher was sluggish, especially in better colors.

Fewer exhibitors and buyers came because of the protests and the market weakness. Trading and traffic were slow, with suppliers observing a drop in the number of Chinese clients attending. But the event still exceeded many exhibitors’ extremely low expectations, as the buyers who turned up were serious ones.

“The show has been better than expected for us, because we didn’t expect many people to come,” said Chetan Shah of R A Gem Centre, the Hong Kong unit of Indian manufacturer S. Vinodkumar Diamonds. “Whoever [came to our booth] were people who really wanted to buy diamonds. They were looking for goods at an attractive price, and if we have the goods, they will buy.”

Sensing an improvement

While buyers were mainly cautious, a minority of exhibitors said clients were aiming to take advantage of the relatively low polished prices to stock up on merchandise.

“People have come to find cheap goods because prices are down,” said Aashay Bhansali, a trader at Antwerp-based diamond supplier Veera Dimon. “Prices have fallen so much, and they don’t think there will be another price fall.”

Diamantaires expressed some optimism that the upcoming holidays would boost Chinese demand, beginning with Golden Week, which starts October 1. Retailers have slowly been working down their inventories by reducing purchases, and will soon be ready to buy again, another Antwerp-based company executive predicted. Golden Week, Christmas and Chinese New Year all offer opportunities for local diamond sales, he noted.

“They haven’t bought much over the last few months, so I’m sure demand will come back,” he explained. “They can’t keep on like that.”

Source: diamonds.net

Petra finds 20.08-carat blue diamond at flagship Cullinan mine

South Africa’s Petra Diamond has found yet another big rock at its iconic Cullinan mine, one of the many coloured diamonds it has unearthed at the operation this year.

The exceptional 20.08 carat blue gem quality diamond Type IIb demonstrates that Cullinan remains a significant source of rare blue diamonds, and confirms the ability of the mine’s plant to recover the full spectrum of precious stones, Petra said.

In April this year, the company found a 424.89 carat exceptional D colour Type IIa diamond at the same mine. The stone was sold the next month for just under $15 million.

In 2015, Petra sold “The Blue Moon of Josephine”, a 29.6 carat blue diamond, for $48.5 million, marking a world record price per carat at auction for any diamond at the time.

Lucara finds another big diamond at its Karowe mine in Botswana

Lucara Diamond has unearthed a 123-carat, gem-quality, top white Type II diamond at its Karowe mine, in Botswana, the same operation where it found the largest precious rock ever found in the African country.

The stone was recovered from direct milling ore sourced from the EM/PK(S) unit of the South Lobe, the same area that yielded the famous “Lesedi La Rona.” The giant 1,109 carat diamond, however, was a hard sell for Lucara. Its buyer, Graff Diamonds ended up cutting it into smaller stones.

Karowe, which began commercial operations in 2012, has this year yielded 22 diamonds larger than 100 carats, eight of them exceeding 200 carats.

The mine also yielded the 1,758 carat Sewelô meaning “rare find” diamond, the largest ever recovered in Botswana.

The Vancouver-based company also announced it had recovered a 375 carat gem quality diamond during the processing of historic tailings from the mine. Reprocessing has so far yielded 29 diamonds over 100 carats, Lucara said.

Since the start of the year, the miner has sold 19 diamonds each with an individual price in excess of $1 million at its quarterly tender sales. This includes seven diamonds that fetched more than $2 million each, and one diamond that carried a final price tag of over $8 million.

“Lucara is pleased with the continued strong performance of the mine and the consistent recovery of large, high quality diamonds that contribute more than 70% of Lucara’s total revenues,” CEO Eira Thomas said in a statement.

The company, which has focused efforts on the prolific Botswana mine this year, is close to completing a feasibility study into potential underground production and life of mine expansion at Karowe.

Source: mining.com

Alrosa mulls acquisition of diamond factory

Russian diamond miner Alrosa is considering the acquisition of Russia’s largest producer and exporter of polished diamonds, Kristall, which is valued at 1.89 billion ruble.

Kristall processes more than 200 000 ct/y of rough diamonds, with 90% of diamond feedstock supplied by Alrosa.

“On the back of the increasingly complex economic environment, Kristall has been going through some financial challenges in recent years. However, the business maintains its output volumes boasting rich heritage, state of the art equipment, and extensive expertise in rough diamonds cutting,” said Alrosa CEO Sergey Ivanov on Tuesday.

He noted that Alrosa was not new cutting and polishing and that its Diamonds Alrosa branch was responsible for about 20% of polished diamonds in Russia. After consolidating Kristall, the group’s share in the Russian market would reach as much as 70%.

“We are quite optimistic about the integration prospects and have already embarked on preparatory work to start joint operations in cutting and sales.

We will focus our efforts on developing new sales channels, including those in the US and Chinese markets, while also improving production efficiency by leveraging the latest diamond processing technologies, automating routine operations, and creating competence hubs to bring together high tech equipment and industry professionals.

We expect that our efforts to merge our cutting facilities will help reduce production costs and, subject to a favourable market environment, take up a considerable share of the market for best in class polished diamonds.”

If approved by the Alrosa supervisory board, the sale and purchase agreement is expected to be signed by the end of this month.

The Kristall diamond factory was founded in Smolensk in 1963. Last year, Kristall production and sales were 105 700 ct and 111 700 ct of polished diamonds, respectively. Its total revenue amounted to 12.8 billion ruble, and net profit reached 40.7 million ruble.

In 2002, Kristall launched its own jewellery production, and the retail chain of Smolensk Diamonds, its jewellery entity, now has over 50 sales points in 30 Russian cities. Kristall’s another entity, Almaz Servis, produces tooling and equipment for the diamond industry.

Source: miningweekly

Shaky gems market hits Petra Diamonds

Challenging conditions facing the global diamond industry were underlined on Monday after London-listed Petra Diamonds reported widening losses.

Petra said the industry was dealing with its worst market conditions since the financial crisis that began in 2008, as the company reported a full-year loss of $258m.

The global diamond market is struggling with lower prices and an oversupply of stones. In addition US-China tensions and pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong have hit demand in the industry’s key markets.

“You need a world that’s firing on all cylinders for diamonds to do extremely well,” Richard Hatch, an analyst at Berenberg said. “It’s a luxury, discretionary spend.”

Shares in Petra dropped to a record low of 7.17p on Monday, according to Refinitiv data. They ended the day down 6 per cent at 7.58p.

Stress is being felt across the industry. Last month De Beers, the world’s second-largest diamond producer, said its sales fell 44 per cent from a year earlier. Shares in other listed diamond producers have also sunk this year with Canada-listed Mountain Province Diamonds down 45 per cent and London-listed Gem Diamonds off by 35 per cent.

Petra’s loss included a non-cash impairment charge of $247m due to what the company said was a “more conservative” assumption for diamond prices. It had reported a $203m post-tax loss a year earlier. Revenues fell 6 per cent to $463.6m.

Petra, which runs the Cullinan diamond mine in South Africa, said diamond prices fell 4 per cent in its September tender from the fourth quarter ending in June.

Richard Duffy, who has been chief executive since February, said it would take between 12 to 18 months for the market to stabilise.

“It is a tough market,” Mr Duffy told the Financial Times. “But when it turns, it tends to turn quite quickly.”

Petra now expects that diamond prices will be flat for the next two financial years, rather than up by 3 per cent, above a long-term US inflation rate of 2.5 per cent a year, as previously forecast.

Petra, which also has mines in Tanzania, said it had discussed with its bankers the possibility it might breach certain covenants on its loans this year and next. It said the banks had “reaffirmed” their support.

Mr Duffy said the company would look to reduce its $595m of net debt by improving the efficiency of its mining operations. The company said it had “sufficient liquidity headroom” for at least 12 months.

Source: ft.com

If you have a Diamond Ring which you wish to sell …

DCLA provides a quick insight and options on how to resale and save you all the trouble.

Eventually we all have this experience. Someone close to us may leave property, air looms or a piece of Jewellery.

The resale value of a piece of jewelry may be very different from the original purchase price, determining this value can be a tedious and frustrating journey in itself.

While figuring out what to do with Property, figurines or crystal candy dishes we find something unexpected. A piece of Jewellery with what looks to be a diamond.

Should you choose to keep or bestow the item upon a loved one the story ends here.

However, if you want to sell it this is where your journey of discovery begins.

Advice is cheap and in some cases unqualified, so always look carefully at the source when taking it.

You may be told or hear the sole value of any piece of diamond Jewellery, unless from a recognised name like Cartier or Tiffany’s is in the diamond.

Alternatively, you might be told the value is in the piece as a whole.

Simple Fact is every item will be different.

One constant every expert will agreed on, is if there is a diamond of significant size in the engagement ring. The main diamond should be appraised by a Gemological laboratory of the level of DCLA, GIA or HRD.

The idea of removing the diamond from its setting and shipping it to one of these top recognised laboratories around the world seems daunting. So before you take this step call and ask the advice of the laboratory.

First Step

Michael Cohen and Roy Cohen, veterans in the diamond trade and third generation diamond experts explain “If you don’t have access to one of these laboratories in your area. Visit a trusted Jeweller in your area. Ask them to look at the stone in the mounting”. If the diamond can be safely removed, ask the Jeweller to give a costing for the service.

You can then submit the stone directly or through the Jeweller to qualified internationally recognised laboratory.

After submitting the lose diamond to a laboratory like the DCLA, HRD or GIA. A definitive grade with natural diamond or natural origin on the report, will be attributed to the diamond this will give the ultimate value.

This can take from a few days to weeks depending on the individual laboratory.

Laboratory Fees vary by carat size and gemological work required, this would be a very small percentage of the diamonds value so well worth the expense.

Once this is complete, most people that have reached this point have taken the decision to sell.

Next step

Based on the 4c’s size, colour, clarity and the shape of the diamond working out the value is not complicated.

A bit of online research will give an indicative retail value. However, the Buying or selling percentages and profits are determined by some shopping the items around.

Visit a ‘Trusted’ Jeweller or independent diamond dealer to get advice or an offer. Expect differences in price when a diamond new a is originally purchased, to when it is resold.

Every Jeweller will have different profit margins. In addition, each dealer will work with different qualities or sizes so finding the right buyer may take a few visits.

Using a Broker or Auction house

There are a number of ways to sell your jewelry, directly to a dealer or back into the trade or via a store on consignment or through a physical auction to name a few.

Be assured with the correct paperwork, and add extra security with Cold Laser inscription on the diamond linking the zone to the report permanently.

De Beers Finds Buyer for Namibia Mine

De Beers has sold the Elizabeth Bay mine for $8.2 million USD, a year after it ceased operations at the deposit.

The miner chose Lewcor Group, a 100% Namibian owned consortium, following an extensive search for a new owner that would be able to operate the mine — part of its Namdeb joint venture with the government of Namibia in a sustainable way, and would also retain De Beers’ employees and contribute economic value to Namibia, it said last week. However, the amount of the transaction could increase to $12.4 million USD, as Namdeb will earn a share of revenue from the sale of diamonds recovered from certain marine mining areas.

“Throughout this process, our objective has been to create the best possible circumstances for reopening the operations, recreating jobs and growing empowered participation in Namibia’s diamond industry,” said Chris Nghaamwa, chairman of Namdeb. “A rigorous, independently advised process enabled Namdeb to select a company with not only the right mining and financial credentials, but also a commitment to meet future social and environmental obligations.”

De Beers ceased operations at the site in September 2018. Although the mine still contains a viable supply of diamonds, output failed to meet the company’s needs and it could no longer run the deposit economically, it said.

Source: diamonds.net

South Africa grants Botswana Diamonds ‘critical’ environmental authorization

Botswana Diamonds said Thursday that it had received a “critical” environmental authorization for diamond-bearing gravels from the Marsfontein mine, next to the company’s own Thorny River project in South Africa.

The company noted the permission, granted to its associated firm Vutomi, was a critical step towards obtaining a mining permit, which it expected to receive shortly.

“We believe the mine gravels and unprocessed stockpiles around the Marsfontein mine contain commercial grades of diamonds,” chairman John Teeling said.

Botswana Diamonds has identified potential partners to process the gravels and stockpiles.

Source: mining.com

Zimbabwe Holds Diamond Auction for 316,000 Carats

Zimbabwe’s state owned Minerals Marketing Corporation opened a 316,000 carat diamond auction, which will close at the end of the week an official said.

“This is the third auction we have conducted this year as there were some administrative issues which were taking place within the organization,” MMCZ’s General Manager Tongai Muzenda said by phone on Wednesday. The last auction was held in July.

The auction, which began on Sept. 9 and will close on Sept. 13, has attracted buying interest from Belgium, Dubai, India, Israel and South Africa, but Muzenda declined to name the companies bidding, citing confidentiality.

Zimbabwe expects to produce 4.1 million carats of diamonds this year, up from 2.8 carats in 2018. At the peak of production in 2012, the southern African country’s output was 12 million carats.